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| Paulys Realencyclopädie | |
|---|---|
| Title | Pauly–Wissowa |
| Caption | Title page of the Realencyclopädie |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
| Discipline | Classical philology |
| Publisher | J. B. Metzler |
| Pub date | 1837–1978 |
| Media type | |
Paulys Realencyclopädie is a comprehensive German-language encyclopedia of Classical antiquity originally conceived in the 19th century and expanded into a monumental reference work covering Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Hellenistic period, Byzantine Empire, and related antiquarian topics. It was initiated under the auspices of publishers and classical scholars and later revised and enlarged by generations of editors and contributors associated with universities and academies across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The project influenced scholarship in fields tied to Tacitus, Plutarch, Herodotus, Homer, and Thucydides and served as a foundational resource for research on figures such as Augustus, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Pericles, and Socrates.
The encyclopedia was launched in the context of 19th-century German philological enterprise alongside institutions like the Prussian Academy of Sciences, University of Berlin, University of Bonn, University of Leipzig, and the publishing house J. B. Metzler Verlag. Early development drew on intellectual currents exemplified by scholars associated with Johann Jakob Bachofen, Friedrich August Wolf, August Böckh, Wilhelm von Humboldt, and Carl Friedrich Hermann. The initial volumes responded to scholarly needs created by editions of classical authors such as Virgil, Horace, Livy, Tacitus and archaeological discoveries at sites like Pompeii, Delphi, Olympia, and Ephesus.
Key editors included figures from the German-speaking academic world: the original initiator, a philologist linked to Aulus Gellius studies, was succeeded by editors and collaborators affiliated with University of Tübingen, University of Munich, University of Bonn, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Contributors comprised eminent classicists, philologists, epigraphists, and archaeologists such as those in networks with Theodor Mommsen, Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Eduard Meyer, Ernst Curtius, Heinrich Schliemann, and Adolf Furtwängler. Later supplements and revisions attracted specialists associated with Heinrich Dressel, August Meineke, Karl Julius Beloch, Franz Winter, Gustav Körte, and Bernhard Schweitzer.
Entries range from biographical articles on figures like Pliny the Elder, Cicero, Sappho, Euripides, and Alexander Severus to topical treatments of institutions and places such as Roman Senate, Sparta, Athens, Carthage, Alexandria, and Constantinople. The work integrates prosopography, epigraphy, numismatics, and topography drawing on sources including Inscriptiones Graecae, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, and critical editions of texts by Aristophanes, Aristotle, Polybius, and Seneca. Articles often collate manuscript traditions of authors like Manuscript traditions of Homer and juxtapose interpretations from scholars such as Richard Bentley, Karl Otfried Müller, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Ernst Gombrich.
The original 19th-century edition was expanded in successive series culminating in monumental multi-volume editions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with later supplements issued through the early postwar era involving editorial teams tied to institutions like the German Archaeological Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and Max Planck Institute for the History of Science. Major supplements integrated new findings from excavations at Troy, Pergamon, Hattusa, and Mycenae as well as scholarship responding to editions of works by Plutarch, Dio Cassius, Procopius, and Cassius Dio. The editorial apparatus evolved to include extensive bibliographies, cross-references, and indices to classical sources such as Stephanus of Byzantium and Eusebius.
Scholars of Classical studies and adjacent fields praised the encyclopedia for its exhaustive documentation and critical bibliography while critics highlighted national and methodological biases evident in some articles during periods dominated by scholars from Wilhelmine Germany, Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later the Weimar Republic. The work shaped reference practice in libraries of the British Museum, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vatican Library, Library of Congress, and major university collections including Harvard University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, University of Chicago, and Yale University. It informed monographs on topics from Roman law to Hellenistic sculpture and influenced later reference projects such as the Oxford Classical Dictionary and national handbooks produced by the Fédération internationale des associations d'études classiques.
Published primarily in German by J. B. Metzler, the encyclopedia saw phased publication with editorial offices collaborating with printers and distributors in Stuttgart, Leipzig, and Berlin. While no complete authoritative English translation exists, select articles were translated or summarized in journals like Journal of Hellenic Studies, Classical Philology, American Journal of Archaeology, and through collaborations with scholars at Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and the Institute for Advanced Study. Partial adaptations influenced encyclopedic ventures in Italy, France, United Kingdom, and the United States, and the series' bibliographic standards persist in digital databases maintained by institutions such as the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut and national libraries across Europe.
Category:Classical philology Category:German encyclopedias